Kisses And Love Won't Carry Me 'Til You Marry Me
by luluvee
Summary: After years together and a song that seems to define their relationship, Jasper finally gathers the courage to ask Bella to be his forever. Will she say yes or will they have the wedding bell blues forever? Written for the 'Will You Marry Me' Contest


**Will You Marry Me Contest**

**Pen Name**: luluvee

**Title**: Kisses And Love Won't Carry Me 'Til You Marry Me

**Disclaimer**: Any and all publicly recognizable characters, settings, lyrics, writings, etc. are the property of their respective owners/creators. Any and all original content is property of the author, who, in this case, happens to be me. In other words, I don't own Twilight, I just manipulate SM's characters into bastardized versions of themselves; I also do not own the rights to the song 'Wedding Bell Blue' written by Laura Nyro and popularized by the group The Fifth Dimension. But I do sing a killer karaoke rendition of said tune.

**Summary**: After years together and a song that seems destined to define their relationship, Jasper finally gathers the courage (with a little help from his sister) to ask Bella to be his forever. Will she say yes or will they have the wedding bell blues forever?

---

"_I was the one who came running when you were lonely/I haven't lived one day not loving you only/But kisses and love won't carry me 'til you marry me, Bill/I love you so, I always will_," Bella sang softly as she twirled through the kitchen. She dodged the island and counter corners, lifted bowls and trays with ease, even managed to throw the dirty utensils into the sink with some sort of ethereal grace. _If only she were that good walking a straight line_, I thought wryly.

I padded up behind her silently and placed my hands on her waist. She gasped and the empty baking rack clattered to the granite countertop noisily.

"Who's this 'Bill' you're singing about, darlin'?" I whispered teasingly in her ear, nuzzling the soft skin of her neck as my lips grazed her ear lobe. "Tryin' to make me jealous? 'Cuz it's kinda workin'."

She let out a giggle and turned her body around so she was facing me. "You're impossible, _Bill_. It's you and always you."

"And you wouldn't have me any other way." I kissed her on the nose and nipped at her full bottom lip before pulling away and inspecting the breakfast bar where sat the fruits of her morning's labor. "Mmmm, cupcakes."

As I made a reach for a pastel pink iced mini cake of goodness, a loud thwack and an intense stinging stopped my hand's progress. I yelped and pouted at my girlfriend.

"Baby!" I whined, rubbing the reddening welt on the back of my hand.

"Baby!" she mocked, poking me in the side with her wooden spoon of pain. "Jasper William Hale, these are for the Easter party tomorrow, so don't you dare get any ideas."

She shooed me out of the kitchen and I kissed her one last time before deciding to hole up in the bedroom. I walked up the stairs of our two story ranch house and ambled to our room. Once I was there, I shut the door behind me and stuck my shoes right in front of it, my foolproof alarm system: the sound of the door hitting my boots would alert me to Bella's presence and I could just say I left them there accidentally.

When I settled myself on my side of the bed, I reached into my bedside table and pulled out the little blue velvet box. Opening it, I traced the profile of the solitaire diamond ring nestled within the pillow. Strong, simple, and elegant- just like my Bella. I couldn't wait to see it on her finger and, if I had my way, it would be there before the weekend's end. _I hope_.

My phone rang, jolting me out of my fantastical daydream and startling me enough to almost jolt the ring right out of my grasp. I pulled the phone from my pocket and glared at the name displayed on the Caller ID.

"Hello, Rosalie," I answered tersely.

"Really, Jasper? Is that any way to greet your darling sister?" My sister, Rosalie McCarty: coquettish queen extrordinaire.

Putting on the best of my learned old-school Southern charm, I replied, "Why, Mrs. McCarty, how may I be of service to you this fine and lovely Saturday afternoon?"

"Oh, my word!" she trilled before we both cracked up in laughter. "I really think I deserve a mint julep for that little number."

I snickered. "What's up, Rose?"

"I have news."

I rolled my eyes. Rose, ever the drama queen, calls to make me guess what her news is. She and my mother are the only two women I know who have nailed this particular aspect of conversation into an art form. Having them using it against each other is... Let's just say oxymoronically cyclical doesn't even begin to cut it.

"And that news would be...?"

"You have to guess, Jas," she cooed and I could practically hear her vibrating with excitement on the other end of the line.

"Really, Rose? We're twins, not psychic mind readers. Spill it." I was in no mood to gossip with my sister when I had better things to be doing like imagining Bella in a wedding dress- no, the wedding lingerie.

Huffing in exasperation, my sister didn't have to say anything for me to know she was pouting. I could see it in my head and the look of disappointment I knew was on her face amused me.

"_Jasper_." The way she said my name was loaded and suddenly, somehow, through that freaky-deaky twin logic, I knew.

"No way," I gasped and I sat up in excitement. The returning 'uh-huh' she gave me had me stuffing the ringbox in my pocket and shooting out of bed, whooping and hollering with a grin a mile wide on my face. "Say it ain't so!"

"It's so, brother," she trilled. I jumped and hollered again and her laughter was so bright you could've lit downtown Austin for a week.

The clattering of the door against my boots alerted me to Bella's presence. I felt my face pale and I shoved the ringbox deeper into my pocket, hoping that my untucked shirt would disguise any bulge the box would make.

"What's going on, babe?"

"Is that Bella?" my sister asked. "Have you asked her yet?"

"Um, no," I mumbled. "But don't start, Rose. I have it all planned out."

"Planned out, my ass."

I waved Bella over and hugged her into my side while pressing the speakerphone button. "Rosie's got some news, babe."

"I'm pregnant!"

I more felt than heard Bella gasp and then the squealing began.

---

"And we left early because Emmett thought I picked up some bug and rushed me to the doctor the minute we got back."

After what had to be the loudest phonecall in all of Texas, Rose had invited us over for dinner to bask in the joy of hers and Emmett's babymaking. The four of us were seated around the living room and the newlywed couple across from us was sharing how they found out the good news.

"So we're in the little white room," Emmett took up, "and I'm freaking out because I thought I couldn't take care of my wife on our damn honeymoon and Doc Gerandy comes strolling in with the biggest smile on his face, acting like he's God and it's all good."

"I had to hold Emmett back from throttling him," Rose laughed. I looked at my twin sister and she had an unmistakeable glow of pure happiness about her. I glanced down at Bella who was curled up under my arm and I couldn't wait to see her shrouded in that same glow of joy and contentment.

When I looked back up, Rose shot me a knowing look chased with a kind smile.

"And Doc G goes on to tell us that no, she didn't pick up some nasty Dominican parasite or airbourne disease. And we're waiting on him to say more and I'm thinking the man is crazy and I was already half way to dialing a lawyer for a malpractice suit because I thought the guy was surely a quack. But after taking the world's longest breath or something he told us."

"'Congratulations, Mister and Missus McCarty, you're pregnant!" Rose finished, quoting the slow breathing quack doctor.

We shared a round of laughs and the conversation segued into their honeymoon, all the things- besides sex- they did and saw while in the Dominican Republic.

"Jas, come help me make another batch of sweet tea," Rose announced while standing up. "You know how I never put enough syrup."

I nodded and kissed my girl's temple before standing and walking with Rose to the kitchen. Before I could confront her about her thinly veiled ploy on sweet tea, she whirled around and poked a perfectly manicured finger into my chest.

"You listen to me, now, Jasper William Hale," she said, all happiness, joy, and contentment gone, replaced with bubbling annoyance. "You best tell me what kind of plans are stewing around in that over-inflated head of yours because your girlfriend deserves better than to have to wait on your ass for the rest of her goddamn life."

I was taken aback. How did we go from happy baby talk to scathing angry 'she-should-leave-your-sorry-ass'?

"Um, excuse me?"

"_Look at her!_" I was suddenly twirled around and looking through the doorway into the living room, watching Bella and Emmett talk. I saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"What am I looking for, Rose?" I asked, growing annoyed. "Bella looks perfectly happy."

"Look closer, asswipe."

I studied the love of my life intently. She was sitting on the couch facing the loveseat where I knew my brother-in-law sat. Her fingers were fluttering about in her lap but her eyes weren't sparking like they usually did. Her eyes, usually a deep and soulful coffee brown, were dull and glassy as though the rest of her was only feigning happiness. I peered closely at her lap and I could see her right hand worrying the third finger on her left, as if she were missing something, like... A ring.

Oh.

"See it now?" Rose hissed, turning me back to her. My head was suddenly working in overdrive, wondering what was wrong and just how to fix it. "Too long, Jas. You've waited too long."

"Now, hold on a minute there, Rose-"

"How long have you two been together." It wasn't a question.

"Nine years," I replied without a milisecond of hesitation. I knew down to the day how long Bella and I had been together because I thanked God every damn night for nine years, seven months, one week, and five days for letting me have her. If I had the time, I could probably narrow it down to the second.

"Nine years," Rose repeated. "And how long were Emmett and I together before getting married?"

"I don't know, like, a year?"

"Seven months, dung for brains." I just shrugged. "And how long were Pete and Charlotte together for before they got married?"

"I think about three years."

"And Angela and Ben?"

"All of high school. What's your point, Rose?"

"What's my point? You listen here, boy, and you listen here good. Nine years. _Nine years_. You and Bella have been together for _nine years _while every single one of her friends and family is off gettin' hitched and matched left, right, and center. How do you think she feels, sitting out on the sidelines without a ring on her finger while everyone else is living in domestic bliss?"

"Wait, we've lived together longer than any of y'all." It was a weak defense and I knew it but a guy had to try.

"Playing domestic bliss and actually living it are two different things, Jasper." She poked me hard in the chest again. "Do you want to marry her?"

"Yes!"

"Then you better ask her before she decides she's gonna tell you no."

With that, Rose waltzed back into the living room, claiming angelically that the sweet tea was cooling in the refrigerator.

I wondered if the pregnancy was making my sister bi-polar. But, bi-polar or not, she was right.

---

"You ready for this, man?" I asked Emmett as we lounged, watching the April sun set low over the houses. We were in the backyard each with a beer in hand while the ladies were upstairs going through the spare bedroom that was now designated the nursery.

"Yeah, I really am," he replied after a meditative sip of his beer. "I mean, this is the life, you know? Wife, house, kid on the way, good car, nice job... I couldn't ask for more."

He stuck his bottle out towards me and I obliged his toast. Internally I sighed. I envied him, even if he did have my haughty sister as his wife. He had everything he wanted because he knew just how to get it and he wasn't scared to do what needed to be done.

I thought back to the ring stashed in my bedside table. I bought the ring two years ago but I never found the balls to get down on one knee. I chalked it up to nerves every time I thought about it, but in reality I guess I was scared. Scared she'd say no, scared that we'd get married and things would turn shitty, scared that all the promises in that one diamond would one day be broken along with my heart.

Rose was right, I had to do it before Bella decided I wasn't worth it. I had to man up, face my fears and ask her. I'd do it tomorrow, like I planned, at the Easter party. But after Rose and Emmett announced the pregnancy, so they wouldn't steal our thunder. And near the end of the festivities, so we can go home and celebrate our engagement immediately. _Or so I don't have to wallow in shame in front of my family when she tells no_, I thought wearily.

The sound of Rose and Bella chatting excitedly as they approached the backyard stirred me out of my thoughts and Emmett and I stood to greet them at patio doors.

"It's getting late, babe," Bella told me, kissing my jaw as per her usual greeting. "And I think Rose and Em want to celebrate... Or renact... Or practice. You know."

We all laughed and the happy couple walked us to the door with promises to meet at the party tomorrow at my parent's ranch. With our goodbyes said, Bella and I climbed up into my truck and we sped off for home.

"Come here, baby," I said, extending my right arm over the bench seat while I drove. She hummed tiredly but moved over into my embrace and buckled the seat belt. She nuzzled her face into my neck and I dropped a kiss into her hair. After a while of comfortable silence, she began humming the tune she had been singing in the kitchen earlier.

It was an old 60's tune by The Fifth Dimension called 'Wedding Bell Blues'. Back when we first started dating, Bella used to tease me, saying this was her song for me because it had taken me almost all of high school just to get the courage to ask her out and at the rate I was going I'd never end up asking her to marry me, just like Bill in the song. Then she learned my middle name was William and, ever since then, she's taken to calling me Bill. Little did she know that her song choice for us was a little too apt. But not for long.

"I love you so," she whispered, pressing a kiss into my shoulder once she finished the song.

"I always will." I hugged her tighter to my side. Tomorrow. Tomorrow would be the day.

With that thought in mind, I parked the car in our driveway and we got out and into the house. After locking up the main floor, I picked her up in my arms and kissed her with everything in me: the apologies and regret for not asking her sooner and the hope that when I did she'd say yes.

Her small but strong arms wound themselves around my neck and her lips responded against mine, parting and allowing my tongue to delve in and meet her own. She tasted sweet from the tea at Rose and Emmett's, but underneath that was something all heavenly and purely Bella. Her teeth nipped at my lower lip and I pulled away, marching kisses down her chin, along her jaw, and down the column of her neck. Each moan that escaped her throat shot straight to my dick and I shifted her so she could wrap her legs around my torso. Her heat found my hardness and she ground into me as I palmed her luscious ass.

"Mmm, more," she panted and I carried her through the dark hallways to our bedroom. I walked carefully, my lips still wrapped around her skin, until I felt my knees hit the bedframe. Lowering her gently to the mattress, I unbuttoned her blouse, my lips following the trail of newly exposed skin my fingers were creating. Once the shirt was undone, I pulled away to let her remove it as I shucked off my own t-shirt.

"God, you're absolutely gorgeous," she breathed as she looked me over with lust hooded eyes.

"And you're absolutely breathtaking." And she was, lying there in her lacy yellow bra on our mint green duvet with her hair splayed widly around her. She was some sort of Caravaggio painting come to life: lustful, erotic, spiritual, and ethereal. And she was mine.

Sitting up, she pulled me between her spread legs by my belt loops and began undoing the button fly of my jeans. Her small hands were sure in their movements and my cock twitched in sweet anticipation. She freed me from the tightened confines of the denim and pushed the pants as far down as she could reach, using her legs when her arms could no longer finish the job.

"God, I love you," I breathed, lowering myself over her and pushing her back to the bed, peppering her shoulder and collar with kisses. I kicked off my boots, jeans, and socks and her hot little hand found my length, palming before wrapping her fingers around it and stroking lovingly.

I unsnapped the front clasp of her bra and she discarded it while I kissed my way over one of her perfectly full breasts until I could wrap my lips around her hard pink nipple. Her stroking rhythm stuttered for a second and her breath hitched and escaped in a low groan of pleasure. I sucked and nipped at the erect peak until it stood proud and then I kissed down across the valley between until I could lavish the same attention on the other breast.

My hands, occupied with stroking the soft, silky skin of her ribs and stomach, finger-walked down until they rested on the waistband of her yoga pants. Slowly, I peeled the light cotton from her skin and began to shimmy the material down along with her lacy panties. She obliged me by lifting her hips and helping make the process go faster. Once she kicked them off, I lifted myself and gazed at her naked form.

"Make me yours," she whispered, pulling me back to her by tugging insistently on my cock. I couldn't help but wonder at her words: was she talking about sex or marriage? I quickly shelved the thought to be mulled over later.

"I want to taste you," I breathed into her ear. I kissed the spot just behind the lobe and continued into a path of kisses down her neck and chest, the valley between her breasts, down her soft but taut stomach, and ending with a kiss just below her belly button.

"Please, Jasper," she begged. I loved the rare instances she used my first name because it always signified to me that the moment was much more meaningful.

I licked a hot, wet trail down to her bare pussy, tasting the sweet and salty flavor of Bella and fresh sweat. When I reached her clit, I sucked on it gently once before lapping up her juices that had leaked out of her already.

"So wet, so good," I mumbled, spreading her legs wider and kneeling between them on the floor. I lick her slit from bottom to top with the flat of my tongue and she moaned, her hands finding their way into my hair.

I flicked the tip of my tongue against her clit a few times, eliciting several low whimpers; her hands twisted my hair almost violently against my scalp and I had to smile at her eagerness. I stiffened my tongue into a point and slid it into her, tasting the sweet headiness of her arousal as she began to buck her hips into my face.

"More," she begged in a short gasp. "Please... More..."

My right arm wound around her thigh to keep her legs open and my left hand stroked it's way up her leg. I remove my tongue from the intense warmth of her core and concentrated my lips, tongue, and teeth on the button of her clit. Once my fingers reached the apex of her spread thighs, I slowly dipped two fingers inside of her while grazing down on her sensitive bundle of nerves with my teeth. She writhed madly in front of me and I felt a surge of pride: this was my woman, no one else's, and only I could make her feel this way.

I began to twist my fingers inside of her, curling them as I pumped steadily in and out. Her inner walls clenched at my digits greedily, the muscles almost reluctant in letting my fingers move. Bella's legs began trembling on either side of me and I could feel the tremors inside of her becoming more and more uneven. I lifted my mouth from her clit and curled my fingers higher until she keened in pleasure, her sounds telling me I had hit her g-spot.

"Come for me, baby," I urged, using my thumb to rub her clit in light circles while her hands left my head and clutched at the duvet. "Come for me and I'll show you just how much I love you."

As soon as the words left my mouth her back arched at an almost violent angle and I heard the ripping of fabric. Her mouth was open, jaw slackened in a silent scream of ecstasy and she couldn't have looked any more beautiful. Once the most overwhelming quakes were over, I pulled my fingers from her body and sucked her essence from them as I slid back up the bed and covered her body with my own. She was panting underneath me, her eyes dark and wild with unbridled passion. She grabbed my face and kissed me roughly, nipping at my lips and tongue. I kissed her back just as roughly as I slid my shaft against her slit, whetting my desire and wetting my dick. Our kiss petered off into a gentler meeting of our lips and I felt her hand snake between us to grasp my cock and align me with her.

At a pace that was torturously slow, I sheathed myself within her. Her walls, tight against my fingers, were like a vice grip around me, but warm and hot and perfect. Once fully inside her, I stopped.

"I love you, Bella."

The soulful coffee brown I missed tonight was back and the conviction in her eyes told me what she didn't have to say. But she spoke the words anyway and they strengthened my resolve to make her mine in every possible way.

"I love you, Jasper."

And with that I began to move. Slow, purposeful strokes, each move of our hips in tandem saying and fortifying what we already knew. If I hadn't already known I loved her and that she was everything to me, this would've been my moment of epiphany. I kissed every single inch of her skin I could reach- her brow forehead, cheeks, chin, lips, jaw, then down her neck, across her dainty collarbone, and the expanse of creamy chest and breasts. Each kiss was my promise to her that we'd be like this forever. Her hands and fingers returned the promises as they caressed my skin in patterns only Bella could understand.

I felt her begin to writhe uncontrollably and her grip tightened on my biceps so I quickened the thrust of my hips into her. I used one hand to rub her clit in light circles again and I forced myself to open my eyes and watch her reach utter completion before I'd come. I felt the familiar burning heat building inside of me and i could only hope that I could watch her come. Moments later, her eyes flew open as her walls drew me in tighter and she came apart in my arms screaming my name. I didn't last throughout her whole orgasm, hers spurning mine on just seconds after as I grunted her name into her skin.

We stayed tangled in each other for what felt like hours after. It was probably only minutes, but just watching her pant, futilely trying to catch her breath, enthralled me to no end. I finally rolled off of her picked her up, manouvering us so we somehow ended up in the bed and under the covers the right way 'round. I held her close to me as she buried her face into the crook of my neck. It was a long while later when she spoke and when she did I was taken aback.

"Marry me."

She looked up at me with those saucer-wide brown eyes and I gaped at her in disbelief. Was she kidding?

"Wha-?"

"Marry me," she repeated, a familiar pink blush staining her cheek but a resolute glint in her eye. "I don't want to wait anymore and I don't want to be singing that song for the rest of my life."

I began to laugh, full out guffaws that shook the bed. She glared at me and pulled away, tucking the blanket around her. God, I knew I was pissing her off but I just couldn't believe it. She beat me to the damn punch. I pulled her face back to mine and kissed her but she didn't reciprocate, her lips set and stiff against my own.

"Baby, I'm not laughing at you," I breathed."I'm laughing at me."

I ducked away then and dug through the drawer of my nighstand, emerging triumphantly moments later with the little blue velvet ring box. I held it out to her and immediately her expression softened, the stone cold anger melting away.

"This is why I was laughing, baby," I explained as she inspected the box as if it were something other worldly. "I was going to ask you tomorrow but you beat me to it."

She looked between me and the box in her hands, tears glistening in her eyes, waiting to fall.

"Go on, open it."

I watched Bella in delight as she gasped softly when she saw the ring. I lifted it from the pillowed nest and took her left hand in my own.

"Now, if I say yes to you, darlin', you're gonna have to be the one to wear the ring because I'm pretty damn sure it won't even fit over the first knuckle of my pinkie."

Her responding laugh was slight and breathy from her tears that had begun to fall. "Just say yes and put the darn thing on my finger!"

"Yes, Isabella Marie Swan, I will marry you." I slipped the thin platinum band over her delicate finger and smiled widely at just how perfect it looked perched there. I pulled her back into my arms and kissed her and this time she was a full participant.

"I love you so," I whispered.

"I always will," she replied with a smile.


End file.
